


The Carollers

by bethany81707



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Flash Fic, Gaslighting, Gen, References to A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:02:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21994189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethany81707/pseuds/bethany81707
Summary: Rhea has undergone quite the transformation seemingly spontaneously. Seteth wonders just who is responsible for it.
Kudos: 9





	The Carollers

“I have something to ask of you,” Seteth said. Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude nodded, looking around at the setup they had worked with and heavily suspecting Seteth had caught on to what they had in mind.

“Rhea has been acting strangely recently. She has energetically run around the monastery, giving out more festive spirit than usual. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it, would you?” Seteth asked. Claude raised an eyebrow, but Dimitri took point.

“How much more are we talking about?” Dimitri asked.

“She accepted Catherine’s offer to head to lunch with her, she gave a generous donation and offered several chefs to Dorothea and Hilda’s dinner thing for the poor, and she’s making it her mission to personally teach Cyril to read,” Seteth explained. Edelgard’s emotionless expression shifted slightly, as her shock tried to escape and paint itself across her face.

“That’s… that’s generous for the archbishop who invented the holiday of ‘giving, family and…’” Claude started.

“Merriment,” Dimitri finished.

“Right, merriment,” Claude said, watching Mercedes approach them.

“Claude, do you have any idea whom can represent Jacob-” Mercedes whispered.

“Not now, Mercedes, Seteth’s here. And I think we don’t need to run this thing,” Claude muttered back, cutting her off deliberately to stop Seteth catching on to the plan. As literate as the man was, just knowing the name Jacob would not offer much of a clue as to what Mercedes was talking about.

“Ah, Mercedes, good timing. You know about ghosts, don’t you? Rhea was going on about three ghosts that appeared to her and talking to her about ‘repenting’ and ‘setting things right’. Should I be concerned about these ghosts causing more mayhem and disruption?” Seteth asked.

“Sounds like the Carollers. They appear to cruel, miserly taskmasters and scare them straight with the weight of their misdeeds. They appear in the night, and usually only appear once to a place per holiday season. If they’re going to come and teach you to loosen up and celebrate the season, Seteth, they won’t do so until next year,” Mercedes explained. Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude all had their annoyed reactions in full force, but Seteth was focused on Mercedes.

“Why would they approach Rhea, though? Rhea is a beloved figure, she’s far from a ‘cruel, miserly taskmaster’,” Seteth asked. Edelgard and Claude tried to sneak away, but Dimitri took their cloaks and kept them in place.

“The legend that describes their role has them perform for such a figure, and as such, most derivative legends stick close to the familiar character. However, it stands to reason that they would branch out from time to time- it’s got to be boring, teaching the same lesson over and over again,” Mercedes suggested.

“And Rhea’s wrongdoings, whatever they might have been, were enough to earn her a visit?” Seteth asked. Mercedes nodded, beaming disarmingly.

“Very well… we shall see how Rhea acts tomorrow. Perhaps she has merely been slipped a particularly strong intoxicant,” Seteth suggested, looking at Claude.

“Hey, I’m with Mercedes! Sounds more grave than gravy to me,” Claude added, which certainly didn’t help Seteth’s suspicions as he left to go check on Rhea again.

“...The ghosts were real?” Edelgard asked.

“And they already visited Rhea?” Dimitri added.

“I don’t know… I don’t get what happened. But I think we need to pack away everything before Rhea starts to piece things together,” Mercedes ordered.

“I’ll get the Zanado dragons,” Dimitri said.

“I’ll get her headstone,” Edelgard called, stifling a giggle at her own pun.

“Why did you tell Seteth about the legend, Mercedes? He’s sharp, he would have caught on if he noticed all our setups,” Claude asked.

“Because Seteth would probably make the connection to the legend just from Rhea’s recount of the events. It’s not exactly an unknown story, after all. What confuses me more is what exactly caused the events to play out, if it wasn’t us. Saint Cichol wrote the original, and his afterword made it clear the events were fictional,” Mercedes said.

“How clear are we talking?” Claude asked.

“He illustrated just what it was in his life that inspired various elements of the involved characters, consistent with known historical events. If the Carollers are real, it’s one hell of a coincidence,” Mercedes said.

“So you’re going to find out who  _ really _ made Rhea go through that epiphany?” Claude asked. Mercedes shrugged.

“I’d rather discuss the ball with Annie. If I described the Carollers correctly and they only appear once per place, there’s no way I’ll catch them,” Mercedes said. Claude looked around the room, and his eyes lit up on Byleth, chuckling to herself as she read a book. Claude darted right over, checking the title upon the cover.

“What’s so funny about such a dry teaching manual?” Claude asked.

“Who said I had to laugh at the contents of the book? I was thinking of something funny that happened yesterday and have actually been completely distracted. Now don’t you have cleaning up to do, Present?” Byleth asked.

“...I suppose I better go see if Dorothea and Hilda actually have plans for that money they got from Rhea,” Claude said, backing away. Byleth’s eyes bore into him, and he darted off.

“ _ Are you going to tell them? _ ” Sothis’s voice asked.

“Their version was never going to work the way ours did. Besides, explaining that it was our doing would just raise further questions, and answering those would take way too much of our precious time,” Byleth said.

“ _ Your precious time faking reading this book, _ ” Sothis snarked.

“Hey, I am actually paying attention to it! Well, I was before you started talking,” Byleth snapped.

“ _ What’s this chapter about? _ ” Sothis asked. Byleth blinked, and turned back a few pages to find the opening passage labelling the topic of assessment. Sothis giggled to herself, and Byleth looked up to find Edelgard dragging along the dragon head.

“What do you think you’re doing with that? Exit’s that way,” Byleth called. Edelgard groaned in exhaustion, thinking about stairs.

**Author's Note:**

> The original idea was to have written the Carol event and have this be the ending, but I think you've seen the Dickens story often enough to get the gist without having to read it again with the Garreg Mach names.


End file.
